Simple error of judgement - over-estimated the weight on the kick, under-estimated Monaghan's leap. I would imagine nobody was more disappointed with it than Hall himself.

Good leap and reactions with the fingers from Monaghan - bit more than "catch and fall" to be fair.

I think you are being far too defensive of Hall there. It was a childish mistake that you see in kids games, not Super League.

Your point would have being correct had Hall actually moved his feet to jump, who cares then if he misjudged. What he did do however, was completely different.

Second game of the season.
Never looked like losing.
Plenty of breaks by the back line.
Forwards controlling the ruck.
Stevie Ward making a fine comeback.
Goal line defence looking superb.
Aiton looking like a fine addition adding quality out of dummy half
Briscoe proving he adds an immense amount to the squad.

Yes bombed a few chances and could have been more clinical, but all the above leaves me delighted.

Edit: Oh and Hardaker looking like he can take on the line and produce a decent ball this year.

It's too early in the season to judge any team, probably six matches in will give us a true assessment of any teams form.
At the moment I am more than happy with our performance so far, especially Hardaker and Briscoe.
I would be extremely disapointed if at the end of the season we don't end up with some silver ware. The challenge cup would fit the bill for me.

He clearly thought the ball was going to go over Monaghan's head. That being the case, he wouldn't have needed to jump. He was moving his hands into position to catch the ball. It never arrived. Poor error, but still an error. It wasn't (IMO) a decision not to challenge for the ball, it was a miscalculation of where the ball was going to be.

First game for some time for Ward, so if anyone can be let off for ring rust....

Yeah we promoted the ball to the right areas, our obvious danger areas out wide.

Wire stuck in the game when they weren't really in it.

As for Leeds, in opening 2 games, on last tackle plays Leeds are electing it to go the 2nd receiver then kick. Buys the kicker more time and space and we are getting a better end result from it. Wonder if that's Barry Eaton's influence? As I know he has been doing some training sessions and some specific kicking sessions. Also Moon has got a fair boot on him, not a bad option to drag the Power play left and if nothing looks on he can put a decent kick in rather than a last ditch kick in hope.

Did you think so? I thought we struggled in this area to be honest. Wire made far too many meters out of DH, and we struggled to slow down their PTB.

I thought so too. Their hookers were far more effective than ours although not many sides are stronger in this department than Wire. And while we didn't slow down their PTB as much as we might have, neither did we give away numerous penalties the way sides often do when trying to compensate for being on the back foot in the ruck area.

And it is not the first time Monaghan against Hall this same error has happened.

Is that sides like Leeds also?

Expect to see that aspect return to the Leeds norm once Jones-Buchanan gets himself fit.

Very much so. Slowing down the PTB isn't something we do terribly well, along with many other sides. It'd be nice if JJB didn't induce quite so many head-in-hands moments but, like you, I'm sceptical that he can/will change that aspect to his game.

A couple of thoughts:

1. We got murdered down the middle early on. Kylie simply should not be starting, he can do 15-20 minute stints at most. Singleton needs to start ahead of him.

That said, for a good part of the first half Burrow wasn't bringing the forwards onto the ball with any pace whatsoever. Compare to Chris Hill & Higham. Hill was always at full tilt when he received the ball.

2. Burrow shouldn't start at hooker. Distribution from dummy half was poor, as above failed to bring the forwards onto the ball with pace, and can't defend as well as Aiton can. As soon as Aiton came on the defence tightened up and we started making more meters.

I can understand the strategy of wanting Aiton fresh enough to be there to close out games, but against better teams than Wire we'll ship more early on with Burrow there, and we lose his attacking ability against tired defences.

3. Stevie Ward needs to start. Immediately brought more to the game than Clarkson, offloading & passing is better, makes more meters and can tackle better.

TEAM FOR CATALANS:

1. Zak Hardaker
20. Tom Briscoe
3. Kallum Watkins
4. Joel Moon
5. Ryan Hall
21. Liam Sutcliffe
6. Danny McGuire
23. Brad Singleton
9. Paul Aiton
10. Jamie Peacock
15. Brett Delaney
12. Carl Ablett
14. Stevie Ward

7. Rob Burrow
8. Kylie Leuluai
16. Ryan Bailey
19. Mitch Achurch

I agree with you and think we are in a good position so far. Competition for places and plenty of room for improvement is where the coaches will be happy to be at this stage.

Superleague have JP making 54 tackles, Delaney with 42, Ablett 38, Aiton 35, Sinfield 33 and Bailey 31 in a team total of 366 tackles. So others are doing their share too

Spot on ...with ALL you state.....

But you can also bet your bottom dollar McDermott and his best buddies player power will still dictate the team and who starts.

To an extent yes. Leeds were slow out of the blocks in the first 15 mins. But once we got a bit of momentum we kept it controlled up until the last 10 mins, but that was more to do with the amount of defending we had to do in the 2nd half. With the quality Wire have got in that department we did exceptionally well.

Other than one brief mention earlier in the thread I don't think anybody has said what an effect the conditions had on the game.
We had to do so much defending in the second half due to the strength of the wind & rain in our faces.
That made it very difficult - in the absence of relief from penalties - to gain ground through kicks on the fifth tackle.
I also believe that the wind played a major factor in Hall failing to offer more of a challenge to Monaghan when he scored.
I was surprised in view of the weather conditions that neither side made more attempts at 40 - 20 kicks when attacking the Cranegie stand end.
Our defence was excellent apart from the two tries. For Westwood's try I felt that Ablett switched off thinking the other 3 would halt Westwood. He was more worried about getting into position to defend the next PTB. Credit to Westwood for not giving up.
I'll be quite happy to see games as close as that - with a similar result - throughout the remainder of the season.
Sadly there are a number of sides that I fear will provide much weaker defensive resolve than the Wolves.

And so the other three should have and had Aiton not released Westwood's legs before the tackle was completed perhaps they would have.

Been out of the country so only just watched the game. After reading bits of this thread I was expecting Leeds to have been total gash and Warrington slightly worse. I was also expecting to see Kylie and McGuire to be utterly dreadful - setting a new low. Anyway, I think I must have recorded the wrong game, if anyone has a version that resembles the one I was expecting can you make me a copy?

The game I recorded (which obviously was the wrong one), was a good early season encounter between a Warrington side stung into action defensively after their poor showing last week and confident and organised looking Leeds team. I guess not everything came off for both teams but the high wind, cold and then wet didn't seem to hinder some good movement met by solid defence from both sides. The ref even had a good one.
I really enjoyed it. Kylie looked perfectly fine and McGuire looked dangerous - I actually thought he looked sharp and did a lot of good defending.

I have just rewatched the game on my version

Perhaps I should lend you my copy.

1ST HALF: Handled the ball a total of 30 times.

2 Kicks Out Of Hand ( 1 Short Attacking Kick In Goal)
10 Standing Passes From 1st Receiver
12 Standing Passes From 2nd Receiver
2 Passes From Acting Half
4 Handling Errors

2ND HALF: Handled the ball a total of 26 times

5 Kicks Out of Hand *Sinfield Off Injured* (1 Short Kick Gained 6 More)
2 Standing Passes From 1st Receiver
9 Standing Passes From 2nd Receiver
2 Passes From Acting Half
2 Runs From Acting Half
1 Return Kick Run
3 Tackled In Possession
2 Handling Errors

McGuire`s involvent was very limited on attack and far from dangerous. I dont recall a single attacking run of more than 2-3m most of his involvment was from standing wide passes or drop offs back inside.

and in defense he was offering assists only ie second man in most of the time.

I dont recall him breaking their line once or assisting in any other positive outcomes, apart from the one short kick in the second half, which is far outweighted by the 6 handling errors 2 of which were clear scoring chances for the wingers but they both sailed way overhead into touch IIRC.

Far too many doom merchants on here recently. If posters aren't putting down the recent performance (which I thought was fine, A very good win). They are arguing among themselves about who has the most accurate stats or who can predict the next performance the best.


There again this is an internet forum, knock yourselves out boys and girls...................but it is only the third week of the season FFS

I think a debate about McGuire`s involvement is a legitimate topic.



Its far from doom and gloom its about our transistion at the vital pivot roles.

We have the back line sorted and IMHO the pack can with the additions sustain its value for this season.

Burrow has other assetts and skills to contribute.

Sinfield barring injuries is set at stand off it would seem again this year.

That leaves McGuire attempting to retain a shirt when facing competition from the youngsters which are up and coming.

I doubt he broke a sweat on Friday night never mind a tackle. Even 2 Sky commentators mention the poor level of his contributions.

I'm not sure that strengthens your argument.

I thought he had a poor game on Friday night, and those questioning if they watched the same game, no you didn't and it's about time you started watching properly.

However, I disagree with you on the comment about "doubt he broke sweat". The guy tried everything, worked his butt off, and was so close on many occasions. The problem is nothing worked for him. Everything he did seemed to go wrong. Hence why he had a poor game. But this is a game of inches, and that quite easily could have being the other way round.

They were watching the same game i think

If it were me, based on the Wire game, I'd start Aiton and bring Burrow off the bench to run at tiring forwards. We had better structure and our ruck in both attack and defence was better with Aiton on the field. He didn't do anything very flash, just did the job of a dummy half and made better decisions.

I'd be tempted to keep Clarkson starting and bring Ward on later, for similar reasons. I think Ward's well capable of doing the grunt work in the opening exchanges, but I'd rather he didn't. He looks like he is going to be a very good defender, but I'm more interested in what he can do with ball in hand with space. I'd like to see him start a few games at 6 or 13 too as the seaspn goes on. But given how long he was out for, bringing him off the bench for a few weeks (provided he gets enough game time) seems a good way for him to play his way back into form.

But then I'm not the coach. Which is probably a good thing really.